With Indigenous kids 24 times more likely to be in prison than non-Indigenous kids, there’s no question that our justice system has major flaws.

In the last fortnight we’ve heard urgent calls from community leaders to close the gap on justice between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.

Justice targets set goals about reducing Indigenous incarceration rates, which governments must report on each year. Targets will hold our politicians accountable and force them to address the entrenched inequality experienced by Indigenous people.

Malcolm Turnbull has said he is “open” to targets. Let’s take up this invitation to convince him.

Indigenous people have been calling for targets for years. We’ve seen targets working on the ground in Victoria, and there’s research to back their effectiveness. All we need now is strong leadership.

For so long politicians have ignored a justice system that clearly isn’t working. We have a long way to go, but this momentum gives me hope that we can start righting past wrongs for Indigenous people. Take action to help make this a reality across the country.

These cuts will hit those who need it most. Those who are less well off, and sick, and there will come a time when patients will have to choose between going to the doctor, or eating that night, it is the Americanisation of the health care system. And we are saying NO.

RSVP and show up to show your support for these vital, and life saving services.

PUP senator Dio Wang: ‘Learn from China’ and root out corruption at national level

Date – February 10, 2016 – 11:39AM – Heath Aston

The Turnbull government will put industrial relations at the heart of its election campaign after the Royal Commission’s damning report into union corruption.

Parliament is set to hear months of evidence of corruption and lawlessness across all sectors – wider than just the union movement – with the imminent establishment of an inquiry into the need for a national integrity watchdog similar to the Independent Commission Against Corruption in NSW.

Palmer United Party senator Zhenya “Dio” Wang is confident he has the numbers with the support of Labor, the Greens and most of the crossbench, to establish a select committee to look at the need for a body to fight corruption from a federal level.

The West Australian senator, who was born in Nanjing, China, told Fairfax Media that Australia could “learn from China’s mistakes”.

“Where I come from, China, entire dynasties fell because of corruption. It wasn’t because of invasion or farmers’ movements, it was all about corruption. We invented corruption,” Senator Wang said.

He said Hong Kong transformed from one of the most corrupt places on earth 50 years ago to being among the cleanest business markets in the world since the establishment of its ICAC in 1974.

The Coalition is pushing for the re-establishment of the Australian Building and Construction Commission – a possible double-dissolution trigger if it is rejected by the Senate again – but has dismissed calls for a wider strategy to tackle corruption at all levels and across all industries.

Senators George Brandis and Michaelia Cash have opposed a national anti-corruption body, but have stood by the …

Senators George Brandis and Michaelia Cash have opposed a national anti-corruption body, but have stood by the re-establishment of the Australian Building and Construction Commission. Photo: Janie Barrett

Senator Wang said there is “increasing public concern” around doping in sport, match-fixing, exploitation of foreign workers and the abuse of political entitlements.

Fairfax Media understands Victorian senator John Madigan will second a motion to establish a select committee and it will also be supported by fellow senate crossbenchers Jacqui Lambie, Ricky Muir and Glen Lazarus, who has previously called for a federal ICAC.

Senator Wang met with Labor’s Senate leader Penny Wong on Tuesday night and received in-principle support for an inquiry.

Senators Muir, Wang, Lambie and Lazarus, as well as Senator John Madigan (not pictured) have indicated the need for a committee to look at forming a national anti-corruption body. Some within the ALP are likely to fight any move towards the establishment of a national ICAC. When the Greens attempted to legislate a federal integrity body in 2014, Labor senators argued it would be “premature”

Senator Wang, who is drafting terms of reference for an inquiry that would run right up to September – around the time Mr Turnbull has pencilled in the 2016 election – has advised the government but was told the Coalition would not back an inquiry .

Cabinet secretary Arthur Sinodinos has had a high-profile brush with the NSW ICAC and a number of senior members of the Coalition at federal and state level believe the corruption body has lost its way under Commissioner Megan Latham.

Employment Minister Michaelia Cash has pushed back at Senator Wang’s attempt to amend the ABCC bill to create a national corruption watchdog.

He believes the ABCC could exist in a new framework where a national ICAC directs agencies like it to investigate allegations of corruption.

In recent days, Senator Cash has insisted that the ABCC is “not a corruption watchdog … merely a regulator that enforces workplace laws”.

In Senate question time last week, Senator Brandis said: “The government’s view is that we have strong laws in relation to corruption, which are enforced by a skilful and honourable Australian Federal Police as well as state and territory police agencies.

There has not been any indication of a culture of corruption in Australian public administration .. instances of corruption are notably rare. The same cannot be said of all state governments and all state public administration but it can be said, and I think we should be very proud of this, of the Commonwealth.”

CCCA welcomes Senate Inquiry in to bullying in Medicine – 2 February 2016

The Chinese Community Council of Australia (CCCA) welcomes Senator Nick Xenophon’s and Senator John Madigan’s call for a Senate Inquiry into “Bullying in Medicine“ The Inquiry will examine whether there were any barriers to reporting harassment (SBS News 2 February 2016). See:

CCCA congratulates the Senators’ initiatives and it is gratifying to know that it would include the role of the Medical Board of Australia and the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency in investigating complaints.

CCCA has received several complaints from medical practitioners who were previously unable to voice their opinions in public; some of these cases date back decades. Those who are coming forward now claim that their medical careers were ruined. In particular, Dr LF Ng (Oncologist) and Dr Bo Jin (Endocrinologist) have claimed to be victims of bullying.

If such bullying is substantiated then the community will have been deprived of the services of these highly trained and skilled doctors, with the damage to their personal lives and careers being immeasurable.

The National President of CCCA, Dr Anthony Pun, OAM said “The medical profession and their colleges, by and large, are shining stars in our community, both nationally and internationally. I am saddened to hear these stories with documented evidence from complainants about a possible culture of bullying which goes against our Australian ethos of egalitarianism and a fair go, particularly in the public health system”.

Our organisation will be writing to Senator Xenophon and Senator Madigan to request a consideration into widening the terms of reference to include whether this bullying has a racial basis.

It is hoped that the Senate Inquiry will be a catalyst to creating awareness of the behaviour of bullying and if bullying is proven to compensate the victims financially, emotionally and for the loss of their self-esteem and hopefully to bring about a healthy change of culture for the good of the profession.

According to The Australian’s weekend article Jennifer, 39, did science and IT. Her rival Stefanie, 35, works in PR. Both had experience as Mayor. But Stefanie has faction support, and Jennifer is not aligned with the factions. The faction bosses are expected to endorse their anointed candidate, no matter the votes of the Party members in that electorate.

Not knowing anything about Jennifer Yang and her rival I am wondering if this situation warrants CA leaders standing up and do something to show that we want to cross into the high ground of citizenship, without the say so of Party handlers.

Or are we still afflicted with the compradorship mentality? Do no evil, hear no evil, say no evil. Just rake in more money, one way or another.

Please do something, immediately, as the pre-selection will be settled tomorrow night.

Jennifer Yang may have committed a grievous sin, by not swearing allegiance to a faction or more likely by not seeking patronage from the faction bosses, but this is an opportunity for you to show to the thinking voter that you are serious about your commitment to the reform of ALP – so that the ALP does not smell like the shop front for union bosses.

This may be one solid trump card you can play, now that the star of Malcolm T has arisen, so high in the electoral firmament.

Bill, you seem to have reneged on your early promise to reform the Party to attract more members from outside our traditional Union/Party nurseries. In fact you have failed to stand up to the Union bosses.

Jennifer Yang could be your path back to becoming a symbol of the modernising ALP: tell the faction bosses/their anointed selectors to give up their largesse dispensing habit. Come what may this will be a legacy you can be proud of for the rest of your life.

From what I read in the Weekend Australian Jennifer has substance and the favoured candidate has form and faction patronage. Jennifer has runs on the board of life, and the other on the board of promoters for one thing or another, in the absence of any disclosure that I have come across.

This is an opportunity for you to reboot your leadership in the eyes of the voter, particularly the thinking voter.

As things stand you have nothing to lose . You may lose a few votes amongst the die hard men of yesterday, but you will gain a lot more from the thinking undecided voters. The latter are likely to decide if we hold on to the marginal seats we are facing defeat in Victoria according to current polling.

The same situation may apply to Moreton in Brisbane where Graham Perret might think that he has got the Chinese (and other ethnic) votes in the bag. Yes, he increased the margin last election. (But do not discount the possibility that many educated middle of the road Chinese voters would have regarded Abbott as uncouth, being still infused with Confucian thinking.) But the advent of Malcolm T has changed everything. Besides, not all Chinese voters are fooled by Perrett’s somewhat sophisticated pork barrelling. I can see the Jennifer Yang case being written up in the local Chinese newspapers as symptomatic of what the ALP really think about Chinese participation in the affairs of our nation. The same might well happen in Melbourne and Sydney, come this year’s Election Campaign. So unless you intervene before tomorrow night you might as well hand over a container load of ethnic ammo to the Libs in those three States.

After having been an activist in the “Chinese community” since Blainey’s 1984 I sense, at long last, that the days of the Chinese “compradors” traditionally hand fed in private and feted at every turn in public by our Party are slowly sinking in the west. A new generation of Chinese Australians, native born, or near enough, is rising to take on the task of entering the last frontier of citizenship, without being “king plated” by the handlers in the back rooms of the ALP machine.

In this connection the so-called Chinese Australian Ministerial Advisory Committee co-chaired by Graham Perret and Matt Thistlewaite was an unblemished disgrace. It is as though the Chinese are still incapable of presenting their views to the Minister/Government. The 10 members needed two white MPs to do it on their behalf! Besides, four of them came from Perret’s electorate, hand picked no doubt, and three each from NSW and Victoria. It was hastily organised in the dying days of the Gillard government, with Michelle Rowland reading into Hansard contemporaneously, to what looks on Utube like an empty chamber, some musec-like noises about the Chinese. My small network of Chinese contacts in these three States was not amused. But the Party is used to buying token Chinese or forming partnerships with self-seeking modern-day compradors. Remember Robert Ho for Lord Mayor of Sydney? Reputedly for us to gain from of high-rise rezoning in Chinatown, as I recall from the SBS doco.

Dear Bill, please give it serious thought. Seeing is believing. Show us what you are made of! Keep faith with those who have recently joined or re-joined because of your public vow to make the Party more meaningful to those not attracted to the Party/Union nurseries.

Yours,

In hope, with heavy heart, and diminishing spirit.

Chek

Annerley Branch , Brisbane

Ps, just 52% of union members voted for the ALP in 2004. And it’s getting close to just 1 in 10 union membership in the private sector. (State Labor governments it would appear are trying to boost union membership by hiring more public servants). Yet union bosses still own the ALP lock, stock, and barrel.

Please make a mark with your leadership.

ALP factional fracas puts Jennifer Yang out in the cold

THE AUSTRALIANJANUARY 30, 2016 12:00AM – Rick Wallace

Labor’s factions are poised to snuff out the preselection chances of a Chinese-Australian candidate who has promised to raise $500,000 of her own money to bankroll the party’s defence of the ultra-marginal federal seat of Chisholm.

Jennifer Yang, a scientist and former mayor, is vying to represent Labor in Anna Burke’s old seat, with a large and growing ¬Chinese-Australian population.

But even if she wins the local ballot a deal between factions means she will almost certainly be rubbed out in favor of rival Stefanie¬ Perri.

On the latest figures, about 30 per cent of the population of the electorate — which lies in Melbourne’s affluent east and takes in the suburbs of Box Hill, Burwood and Mont Albert — is of Asian descent, with Chinese Australians making up most of this total.

With the Liberal vote surging in Victoria under Malcolm Turnbull and veteran local MP Ms Burke departing, the seat is seen by ALP hardheads as vulnerable, with a margin of just 1.6 per cent.

Ms Yang, 39, talks up her cross-cultural and fundraising credentials in her latest letter to pre-selectors, pointing out her efforts in raising $100,000 when she stood for the state seat of Mount Waverley and narrowly missed out in 2014.

“With a tough election ahead and facing a well-funded opponent, if endorsed as your candidate I commit to raising $500,000 to ensure¬ our campaign is well resourced to win the support of -aspirational and traditionally swinging voters to stay with us,” she says. She urges ALP members to support a “fresh face that ¬reflects our diversity and a confident 21st-century Australia”.

“Winning the support of the Chinese and Asian-Australian community is going to be a critical factor for Labor to retain Chisholm,’’ she says.

“If only a small percentage deserts us, at 1.6 per cent now, the electorate is lost.”

Australia’s large population of people with Asian heritage is woefully underrepresented in federal parliament, with just a handful of individuals from this demographic — such as Penny Wong, who was born in Malaysia; former Queensland MP Michael Johnson, born in Hong Kong; former senator Tsebin Chen and current senator Dio Wang, both born in China — elected in recent years.

Ms Yang declined to comment, but a supporter said “if the party is going to get real we need to be as diverse as possible and we need to appeal to local communities, and I think Jennifer is the best person to connect in that way”.

“She’s a woman, she’s a Chinese migrant, she ticks all of the boxes for cultural diversity … she has a science and information technology background and she’s worked in the private sector.”

Ms Yang’s opponent, Ms Perri, comes from an Italian background, is Mayor of the City of Monash and works in public ¬relations.

She declined to comment on what her pitch to voters would be, but said the contest on the ground had been fair and democratic.

One of her allies said she had served the community strongly in local government and could be a formidable local champion in the mould of Ms Burke.

While both candidates are fighting hard for the 251 votes available locally, that makes up only half the ballot, with the 100 members of Labor’s public office selection committee providing the other half of the result.

Under the stability pact that governs ALP preselections in Victoria, Chisholm is allocated to the rightwing Centre Unity faction and the Left’s delegates simply rubber-stamp that group’s preferred choice.

Thanks to the recent readmission of the National Union of Workers faction into Centre Unity, Ms Perri, 35, will be the beneficiary of almost all of the POSC vote.

Ms Yang, who is not aligned to any faction, can only count on a handful of POSC votes, meaning she will essentially be rejected at Wednesday night’s POSC meeting without external intervention.